Balancing different tasks in high school can be challenging. Some students can be balancing school, work, and even an after school activity. Nearly 30% of high school students are working for at least a part of the school year. While there are potential perks and advantages to having a job in high school, research has shown there are also many drawbacks. For instance, a job can give a student experience that they may need later in life, but on the other hand it can also take a lot of free time away, and they can also cause more stress.

Experience is one of the best items a student can get while still in high school. After school jobs can help teens gain necessary work skills that they may need later in life. It will help them gain responsibility, time-management skills, and even how to budget. Gaining these skills in high school will help students tremendously when they graduate, and possibly even go to college. Working with co-workers can also help teens gain experience, especially if they are older. They can help you be more confident while you are learning. They also might even show little tools they have learned in the time that they have had a job.

On the other hand, having a job while occupied with school can be very time consuming. This can give students less time to focus on academics such as; studying, homework, and maybe even projects. Research has shown teens who are working up to twenty hours a week suffer from reduced academic performance. Additionally, it shows the teens who work more hours have lower GPAs because they do not have free time. Working instead of having free time can give students the time that they would usually have to sleep to study. This can lead to fatigue, which can impact their overall well-being. 

Two of the main causes of stress are having a job, and being in school. These forms of stress can be students feeling like they are being too overwhelmed, or overworked. Teens are already under a lot of pressure, especially during high school, and adding a  job on top of that gives more work that they may find difficult to handle. Being under a lot of stress can lead to other disorders. Something it can lead to is anxiety. Having anxiety while working, and at school can cause you to struggle even more. This can end up causing you to do worse in school, and at your job. 

Overall, having a job in high school has many pros and cons. I think that having a job is completely up to the students, and what they think that they can handle. If they are already busy enough then maybe they should wait till they can have more focus on their job so they can do better.